U.S. patent number 7,194,546 [Application Number 10/123,521] was granted by the patent office on 2007-03-20 for computer system, a method and a program for providing a web page appropriate to a user.
This patent grant is currently assigned to Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha. Invention is credited to Masato Honjo, Michitada Kameoka, Keiji Takakura.
United States Patent |
7,194,546 |
Kameoka , et al. |
March 20, 2007 |
Computer system, a method and a program for providing a Web page
appropriate to a user
Abstract
The invention provides a computer system which is related with a
Web server for providing a Web site over the Internet. The computer
system is configured to comprise customer type determining means
for determining a customer type of a user based on a transition of
the user's content requests when the user is accessing the Web site
and Web page providing means for providing an appropriate Web page
for the user based on the determined customer type. According to
the invention, it is possible to determine a customer type of a
user while the user is accessing a Web site and present a Web page
appropriate to that user based on the determined customer type of
the user.
Inventors: |
Kameoka; Michitada (Saitama,
JP), Takakura; Keiji (Tokyo, JP), Honjo;
Masato (Tokyo, JP) |
Assignee: |
Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki
Kaisha (JP)
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Family
ID: |
18983890 |
Appl.
No.: |
10/123,521 |
Filed: |
April 17, 2002 |
Prior Publication Data
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Document
Identifier |
Publication Date |
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US 20020165940 A1 |
Nov 7, 2002 |
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Foreign Application Priority Data
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May 7, 2001 [JP] |
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2001-136649 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
709/229; 709/246;
709/232; 707/E17.109 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06F
16/9535 (20190101); G06Q 30/02 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
G06F
15/16 (20060101) |
Field of
Search: |
;709/229,232,246 |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Foreign Patent Documents
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9-101985 |
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Apr 1997 |
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JP |
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9-245084 |
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Sep 1997 |
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JP |
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2886820 |
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Feb 1999 |
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JP |
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11-134353 |
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May 1999 |
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JP |
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11-282393 |
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Oct 1999 |
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JP |
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Primary Examiner: Caldwell; Andrew
Assistant Examiner: Willett; Stephan
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Arent Fox PLLC
Claims
What is claimed is:
1. A computer system which is related with a Web server for
providing a Web site with a Web page over the Internet, contents of
the Web page being previously provided with numerical data for
customer type identification, the computer system comprising: a
user ID storage for storing user IDs comprising a personal
identification portion for identifying a user and a customer type
identification portion for identifying a user type; and a contents
storage for storing contents in association with the numerical data
for customer type identification of the contents, wherein the
computer system is programmed to read out the numerical data for
customer type identification of contents from the contents storage
when a user requests the contents, to perform operations on the
numerical data for customer type identification to update a value
of the customer type identification portion of the user ID of the
user based on said user requested contents, to store the updated
customer type identification portion in the user ID storage, to
select a customer type from a predetermined number of possible
customer types based on the updated value of the customer type
identification portion of the user ID of the user who has requested
the contents and to dynamically set a link to contents to be
supplied to the user, depending on the selected customer type.
2. The computer system according to claim 1, wherein the provided
Web page contains at least two frames on the browser screen;
wherein the contents requested by the user are displayed in a first
frame of the browser screen; and wherein the link dynamically set
is displayed in a second frame of the browser screen.
3. The computer system according to claim 1, wherein the customer
type identification portion of a user ID contains codes
representing a plurality of customer types and customer type
coefficients representing relationships between the user of the
user ID and each of the customer types and the customer type
identification data contain coefficients representing relationships
between the contents and the plurality of customer types and the
customer type coefficients contained in the customer type
identification portion of the user ID and the coefficients
associated with the contents which the user has requested are added
to update the customer type identification portion.
4. A method for providing a Web site with a Web page over the
Internet, by a computer system, contents of the Web page being
previously provided with numerical data for customer type
identification, the computer system comprising: a user ID storage
for storing user IDs comprising a personal identification portion
for identifying a user and a customer type identification portion
for identifying a user type; and a contents storage for storing
contents in association with the numerical data for customer type
identification of the contents, wherein the method comprising the
steps of: reading out the numerical data for customer type
identification of contents from the contents storage when a user
requests the content; performing operations on the numerical data
for customer type identification to update a value of the customer
type identification portion of the user ID of the user based on
said user requested contents; storing the updated customer type
identification portion in the user ID storage; selecting a customer
type from a predetermined number of possible customer types based
on the updated value of the customer type identification portion of
the user ID of the user who has requested the content; and
dynamically setting a link to contents to be supplied to the user,
depending on the selected customer type.
5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the provided Web page
contains at least two frames on the browser screen; wherein the
contents requested by the user are displayed in a first frame of
the browser screen; and wherein the link dynamically set is
displayed in a second frame of the browser screen.
6. The method according to claim 4, wherein the customer type
identification portion of a user ID contains codes representing a
plurality of customer types and customer type coefficients
representing relationships between the user of the user ID and each
of the customer types and the customer type identification data
contain coefficients representing relationships between the
contents and the plurality of customer types and the customer type
coefficients contained in the customer type identification portion
of the user ID and the coefficients associated with the contents
which the user has requested are added to update the customer type
identification portion.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a technique for introducing a user
to appropriate information in a Web site, and more particularly, it
relates to a technique for presenting to each user appropriate
links which dynamically change according to each user.
Recently, Web sites which transmit company and/or product
information to general customers through the Internet, have been
prevailing widely. Such company Web sites contain more contents in
comparison with Web sites of individual users. For example, company
Web sites need to prepare such various contents as the latest
information, various products information, dealer information, FAQ
and so on. When a company tries to provide the customers with rich
information through the Web site the company cannot avoid an
increase in the amount of contents constituting the Web site.
Generally, a Web site which is massive in terms of the content
amount, makes it difficult for the users to find out the
information they want to know. As a result, the users cannot
sometimes reach the information they really want to look for.
Therefore, in order to introduce the users to the respective
information, such Web sites having relatively many contents
provide, for example, a form for searching Web sites or a menu on
the top page.
The information introduction in such conventional Web sites depends
primarily on users. Accordingly, users have to know in advance the
terms or keywords related with the target information. Furthermore,
when a user does not clearly identify the information that the user
wants to know, it is not possible for the user to efficiently use
such information introduction means.
Conventionally, needs of individual users have been analyzed based
on access logs of the individual users. If such access log analysis
for each user can be processed while the user is accessing the Web
site, it is possible for the Web site to predict the information
which is wanted by the user based on the result of such analysis so
as to meet the need of each individual user.
Thus, it is required to determine a customer type for an individual
user in a Web site and present an appropriate target to be linked,
for that user, based on the determined customer type, so as to
introduce the user to the appropriate information in the Web
site.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In order to achieve the above-mentioned objective, the present
invention provides a computer system which is related with a Web
server for providing a Web site over the Internet. The computer
system is configured to comprise customer type determining means
for determining a customer type of a user based on a transition of
the user's content requests when the user is accessing the Web site
and Web page providing means for providing an appropriate Web page
for the user based on the determined customer type.
According to the present invention, it is possible to determine a
customer type of a user while the user is accessing a Web site and
present a Web page appropriate to that user based on the determined
customer type of the user.
According to an aspect of the invention, in the above-described
computer system, the provided Web page is arranged to contain at
least two frames on the browser screen, display the requested
content in a first frame of the browser screen of the user and
display a link to the appropriate Web page for the user in a second
frame of the browser screen of the user.
According to this aspect of the invention, it is possible to
introduce the user to the target content on the Web page because
the content and the link are displayed as Web pages in the
respective separate frames.
According to another aspect of the invention, in the
above-described computer system, the provided Web page is arranged
such that it is dynamically assigned to the link of the Web page
which the user is accessing.
According to this aspect, the content appropriate to the user can
be provided in the Web page based on the determined customer
type.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 shows an example of a Web server and client according to the
invention;
FIG. 2 shows an example of a Web site according to the
invention;
FIG. 3 shows an example of a browser screen which uses a frame
function;
FIG. 4 shows an example of customer type identification data
associated with each content;
FIG. 5 shows an example of a user ID that contains a person
identification portion and a customer type identification
portion;
FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a process of the Web server;
FIG. 7 shows a transit of the user ID in accordance with the user's
accesses; and
FIG. 8 shows an embodiment for providing content versions in
accordance with customer types.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
Following will describe some embodiments of the invention with
reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 shows an example of
a Web server 13 and a PC (Web client) 11 according to the
invention. A Web browser software is installed in the PC 11 for
accessing a specified URL through the Internet 31.
FIG. 1 schematically shows the Web server 13 for providing a Web
site of an ABC company. In the following description for this
embodiment, the ABC company is specifically assumed to be an
automobile manufacturing and marketing company. The server 13 has a
URL for accepting an access via Internet and it is capable of
providing a Web site of the ABC company to any Web client who
exists on the Internet.
In an actual large-scale Web site, a Web server, a Web application
server, a database server and other servers are interconnected with
each other through a network so as to share the processes required
for providing the Web site. In FIG. 1, all of those servers are
integrated into the Web server 13.
Thus, the Web server may comprise one or more processors and one or
more memories. The processors and memories may be interconnected
with each other via such a network as a local area network.
Although only one PC 11 as a Web client is shown in FIG. 1, many
Web clients actually exist over the Internet. Such many clients
access the Web site and click a button, graphics or character in
which a certain link is embedded. In response to such clicking
operations, the Web server 13 provides the linked contents (which
will be hereinafter referred to as "requested content") to the
respective clients.
There are two types of pages provided in the Web site 13 of the ABC
company. The first one is a page which anyone can access freely
without the need for any user ID and password. The second one is a
page for which each user is required to register in advance a user
ID and its associated password. A user is allowed to access this
type of page only after this user ID and the password are
authenticated.
In order to register a user ID and a password, the user fills such
items in an entry form on the Web site as the user's name, age,
gender, family information, a residence type, annual income,
information of the user's own car, stage of the car life and usage
of the car, hobbies, car-driving stile etc., and then transmits the
filled-in form. A CGI program of the Web server 13 verifies the
received items in the entry form, approves the registration when
the required items are recorded and then stores the user ID and the
password in a database 29. In one embodiment, such obtained
individual data of the potential customers may be transferred from
the database 29 of the Web site to another database so as to be
managed collectively with other individual data from the other
sources.
When a user tries to access a page which requires authentication,
the user transmits the user ID and the password from the PC 11 to
the Web server 13. The Web server 13 checks the received user ID
and password with the database 29, permits the log-in from the PC
11 if the authentication confirms the identity of the user, and
provides each content in response to the content request.
Each page that can be accessed via the authentication of user IDs
and passwords includes various contents such as the product
information, service information, advertising information and the
FAQ on the ABC company, in a hierarchical structure. Related
contents are linked with one another either one-way or
bi-directionally. The user can travel through the contents by means
of clicking these links on the browser. Although all of the
contents provided by the Web server 13 are stored collectively in a
memory section 27 in FIG. 1, such structure is not necessarily
required. Instead, the Web server 13 may manage each of the
contents in a distributed structure.
The Web server 13 according to the present invention can determine
in real time properties (customer type) of the user (visitor or
customer) who is operating the PC 11 based on the content request
from the PC 11. Furthermore, when a customer type has been
determined, the Web server 13 can dynamically generate a link to
the content corresponding to that customer type so as to present it
to the PC 11.
A customer type, which is referred to in this embodiment, means a
classification of customer's properties (such as preference, taste
and tendency), which is statistically analyzed from the data of
many customers. Examples of customer types include a type of
actively reacting to the marketing activity (need for person
dependency), a type of considering a test drive is important (need
for confirmation of real product), a type of requesting the product
information (need for information), a type of considering services
for the product is important (need for services) and so on. Such
customer types are predetermined based on the data of the
questionnaire and/or the historical actual results in accordance
with the method disclosed in the Japanese Patent Application No.
2000-396577 by the same applicant as for the present invention.
The Web server 13 can determine in real time the customer type of
the user who is making an access, based on the user's request for
the content and present a link to the target corresponding to the
customer type. For example, when it is determined that the customer
type of the user who is making an access is the type of considering
a test drive is important (need for confirmation of real product),
the Web server 13 generates a link to a content of "informing the
schedule about the test drive for the new car" to present it to the
user as a Web page. When the customer type of the user is
determined to be the type of requesting the product information
(need for information), the Web server 13 generates a link to a
content of "providing information of new cars" to present it to the
user as a Web page. In other words, the Web server 13 can
dynamically provide the user with a link to the content having a
strong influence on him or her, based on the customer type of the
user who is making an access, so as to guide the user to reach the
target content through the shortest path.
Real time determination of the customer type and dynamic editing of
Web pages according to the present invention enable such guidance
for the user during the access.
In FIG. 1, the processes of the Web server 13 are shown as
functional blocks. Although the Web server 13 in FIG. 1 is
configured to perform all of the processes, the invention is not
limited to such configuration. For example, the Web server 13 and
the PC 11 may share the processes shown in the functional blocks by
means of using some cookie to be exchanged between the Web server
13 and the PC 11.
In the embodiment of FIG. 1, the Web server 13 comprises a
receiving section 15, a user ID processing section 17, a customer
type identification data retrieving section 19, a customer type
determining section 21, a transmission information generating
section 23 and a transmitting section 25 as well as a memory
section 27 for storing the contents of the Web site and a log-in
database section 29 for holding users' registration information
(such as user names and the passwords).
The Web server 13 of FIG. 1 repeats a series of processes from the
receiving section 15 through the transmitting section 25 every time
a content request is received from the PC 11. Generally, the
customer type of the user is identified as follows. A value
included in the user ID of the user is updated after the user has
requested for the contents several times. When the value included
in the user ID satisfies a predetermined condition, a customer type
is determined based on that value. When the customer type has been
determined, a link corresponding to that customer type is obtained
and the obtained link is transmitted to the PC 11 along with the
content. A Web page containing the obtained link and the content is
displayed on the browser screen of the PC 11. Following will
describe in more detail the functional blocks shown in FIG. 1.
The receiving section 15 receives a request for the content that is
transmitted by the PC 11 through the Internet 31. When the request
for the content is received, the user ID processing section 17
consults the log-in database section 29 to obtain the user ID
corresponding to the user who is making a content request. After
having obtained the user ID, the content request is delivered to
the customer type identification data retrieving section 19 and the
obtained user ID is provided to the customer type determination
section 21.
A user ID contains two kinds of information as described later in
detail. The first piece of information contained in a user ID is a
fixed value (numerical value or character) for uniquely
distinguishing the user who is requesting the content. The second
piece of information is a value (numerical value or character) used
to determine a user's customer type, and this value is updated
every time the content is requested by the user. The Web server 13
can determine a user's customer type based on the update of the
second piece of information.
Upon receiving a content request, the customer type identification
data retrieving section 19 retrieves the customer type
identification data regarding the requested content and provides it
to the customer type determining section 21. As described later in
detail, the customer type identification data, containing
coefficients for characterizing the user who is requesting the
content, are used for determining the user's customer type.
The customer type determining section 21 uses the retrieved
customer type identification data to update the user ID. The
updated user ID is stored by the log-in database section 29 so as
to be used at the time of the subsequent content request.
Besides, when the information contained in the updated user ID
satisfies a predetermined condition, the customer type determining
section 21 determines a customer type based on the updated user ID
and informs the transmission information generating section 23 of
the determined customer type. When the information contained in the
updated user ID does not satisfy the predetermined condition, the
transmission information generating section 23 is informed that the
customer type is not determined.
The transmission information generating section 23 obtains the
content corresponding to the user's content request from the memory
section 27 as well as a link corresponding to the customer type
that has been determined by the customer type determining section
21. For example, respective links corresponding to the customer
types are stored beforehand in such table as a link table 28 shown
in FIG. 1. When the customer type is not determined, a
predetermined default link may be used. A transmitting section 25
transmits both of the content obtained from the memory section 27
and the obtained link to the PC 11 as transmission information. The
PC 11 displays the transmission information containing the obtained
link and content as a Web page on the browser screen.
Following will describe these processes in more detail. FIG. 2
shows a Web site comprising total fourteen contents according to
the invention. For example, each content A through O is a HTML file
which contains such information (texts, images and other objects)
as product information and service information which is of
significance to the users. Since some statically-embedded links (in
other words, fixed links in HTML) are included in each content A to
O, users can display the respective contents by means of clicking
those links.
Besides, each content of the Web site according to the present
invention is provided with the customer type identification data 45
respectively. As will be described later in more detail, the user's
customer type can be determined in real time by means of referring
to these customer type identification data 45 while the user is in
access.
In the Web site of FIG. 2, a dynamic link area as well as each
content is displayed on the browser screen of the PC 11. This
dynamic link area is to present a link to the target corresponding
to the customer type to the user when the user's customer type has
been determined.
In one embodiment, the dynamic link area is implemented through a
frame division scheme upon one browser screen. FIG. 3 shows an
example of a browser screen 53, to be displayed in the PC 11, which
uses a frame function. A browser screen 53 displays two frame areas
for respectively displaying the corresponding HTML files.
A frame 55 is a static part to be used for displaying a content A
to O as shown in FIG. 2. A frame 49 is a dynamic link area, in
which a link to an arbitrary content and brief description (text,
image or other object) about the linked target are displayed.
The link displayed in the frame 49 dynamically changes its target
to be linked depending on whether or not the customer type of the
user has been determined. More specifically, when the user's
customer type is not determined, the frame 49 displays a
predetermined default link. However, once the user's customer type
has been determined based on the content requests, a link to the
target corresponding to the user's customer type is displayed on
the frame 49 instead of the predetermined default link.
Following will describe an exemplary operation of the dynamic link
area 49 with reference to FIG. 2. This example assumes that the
user's customer type is determined by the Web server 13 when the
user clicks the link to the content I in the content E 37 during
the user's travel through the path of "A to C to E to I to O".
What is displayed in the frame 55 of the browser screen 53 after
the user has clicked the link from the content A 33 to the content
C is the content C 35, and the predetermined default link is
displayed in the frame 49. It is same at the time of the movement
from the content C 35 to the content E 37.
However, because the user's customer type is determined after the
link to the content I at the content E 37 has been clicked, the
frame 49 of the browser screen 53 displays a link to the target
corresponding to the user's customer type (the link to the content
O in this example) rather than the default linked target. As a
result, the content I 39 is displayed in the frame 55 of the
browser screen 53 and the link to the content O is displayed in the
frame 49. The user can reach the content O 43 through the shortest
path by means of clicking the link to the content O which is being
displayed in the frame 49.
Generally, the changed link to the target in the dynamic link area
should be such content as having a strong influence on the user's
customer type. For example, if a certain customer type is
identified, the content that is wanted by that customer type can be
predicted from the past statistics. Thus, convenience of the user
could be enhanced because a link to the content that the user wants
to see is presented in the dynamic link area 49.
The customer type of the user who is in access is determined based
on the customer type identification data 45 associated with each
content. The customer type identification data 45 contain
respective numerical values for characterizing the users accessing
each content. Those numerical values are assigned according to the
customer types. In other words, the customer type identification
data 45 for each content are the data for characterizing the
customer type of the user who is accessing the concerned
content.
FIG. 4 shows an example of the customer type identification data 45
associated with each content. This example uses the aforementioned
four customer types, namely a type of "need for person dependency",
a type of "need for confirmation of real product", a type of "need
for information" and a type of "need for service". However, any
number of customer types may be used depending on the requirement.
When four customer types are used for the customer type
identification data 45, users are classified into either of these
four customer types.
The customer type identification data 45 include alphabetical
characters (A to D), by which the customer types are respectively
represented. In case of "A06B01C00D02" which is illustrated in FIG.
4, the character A represents the type of "need for person
dependency", the character B represents the type of "need for
confirmation of real product", the character C represents the type
of "need for information" and the character D represents the type
of "need for service".
Each numerical character following each alphabetical character in
the customer type identification data 45 is a customer type
coefficient representing a probability with which the user
accessing a certain content falls within the customer type. Such
coefficients are statistically determined for each content based on
the past access logs for each content.
For example, when customer type coefficients "A06B01C00D02" are
given to a certain content, the numerical values "06:01:00:02"
following the alphabets indicate that the probabilities of the
content for each customer type are "67%:11%:0%:22%" respectively.
In other words, according to the past actual results, 67% of the
users who have accessed the content belong to the customer type of
"need for person dependency", 11% of the users belong to the
customer type of "need for confirmation of real product" and 22% of
the users belong to the customer type of "need for service".
As shown in FIG. 2, each content in the Web site according to the
invention is associated with customer type identification data 45
varying from content to content. The Web server 13 determines in
real time each user's customer type through use of the customer
type identification data 45 for each content and the user ID.
FIG. 5 shows one embodiment of the user ID which contains a person
identification portion and a customer type identification portion.
The person identification portion is used to hold a value
(numerical value or character) for uniquely distinguishing the
user. The customer type identification portion is used to determine
the customer type of the user who is identified by the person
identification portion. The value in the customer type
identification portion is changed depending on the customer type
identification data 45 for each content. The Web server 13 can
determine the customer type from transition of the value of the
customer type identification portion contained in the user ID.
FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the process of the Web server 13, and
FIG. 7 shows transition of the user ID in response to the user's
access. Following will describe a process of the Web server 13 for
determining the customer type, with reference to FIG. 6 and FIG.
7.
In FIG. 7, the content A 33 is first shown as a top page in the
browser screen in the PC 11. At this time, the customer type
identification portion of the user ID 51 is initialized as
"000,000,000,000".
When the user selects, at the top page, a link to the content C,
the request for the content C is transmitted to the Web server 13
by the PC 11 (step 101 of FIG. 6). When the Web server 13 receives
the request for the content C from the PC 11, the customer type
identification data "A06,B01,C00,D02" which is associated with the
content C is retrieved (step 103 of FIG. 6). Then, the retrieved
customer type identification data of the content C is added to the
customer type identification portion of the user ID 51
("000,000,000,000"+"A06,B01,C00,D02"="A06,B01,C00,D02"). As a
result, the customer type identification portion of the user ID 51
is updated to be "A06, B01,C00,D02" (step 105 of FIG. 6). The
updated customer type identification portion of the user ID 51 is
compared with a predetermined reference value. If the customer type
identification portion exceeds the reference value, the customer
type of the user is determined (step 107 of FIG. 6).
In the example of FIG. 7, the predetermined reference value is
"10". Accordingly, unless either of the customer type coefficients
(numerical value following each alphabet) of the customer type
identification portion becomes "10" or more, determination of the
customer type of the user is not performed. Therefore, the
determination of the user's customer type is not carried out
immediately after the request for the content C.
When the determination of the customer type is not performed, the
link to the target of the dynamic link area 49 is set to a
predetermined default link to the target (step 113 of FIG. 6).
After the dynamic link area 49 has been set to the default, the Web
server 13 transmits the content C 35 and the default link to the PC
11 (step 115 of FIG. 6), so that the contents C 35 and the default
link are displayed on the browser screen 53 of the PC 11.
Subsequently, when the user clicks a link to the content E in the
content C 35, the Web server 13 receives a request for the content
E 37 (step 101). When the Web server 13 receives the request for
the content E 37 from the PC 11, the customer type identification
data "A02, B01,C01,D01" which is associated with the content E 37
is retrieved (step 103). Then, the retrieved customer type
identification data of the content E is added to the customer type
identification portion of the user ID 51
("A06,B01,C00,D02"+"A02,B01,C01,D01"="A08,B02,C01,D03"), so that
the customer type identification portion of the user ID 51 is
updated to be "A08,B02,C01,D03" (step 105).
In this instance again, just as in the previous instance, none of
the customer type coefficients of the client type identification
portion exceeds "10". Accordingly, the user's customer type is not
determined (step 107) and the link in the dynamic link area 49 is
set to the default target (step 113). After the dynamic link area
49 has been set to the default, the Web server 13 transmits the
content E 37 and the default link to the PC 11 (step 115), so that
the contents E 37 and the default link are displayed on the browser
screen 53 of the PC 11.
Then, when the user clicks a link to the content I in the content E
37, the Web server 13 receives a request for the content I 39 (step
101). In response, the customer type identification data
"A02,B03,C02,D01" assigned to the content I 39 are retrieved (step
103). Then, the retrieved customer type identification data of the
content I is added to the customer type identification portion of
the user ID 51
("A08,B02,C01,D03"+"A02,B03,C02,D01"="A10,B05,C03,D04"), so that
the customer type identification portion of the user ID 51 is
updated to be "A10,B05,C03,D04" (step 105).
In this instance, the determination of the customer type is
performed because the customer type coefficient of A in the
customer type identification is not less than "10" (step 109). In
this embodiment, the user's customer type is determined from the
largest customer type coefficient in the customer type
identification data. The customer type identification portion in
the user ID which has been updated immediately after the request
for the content I 39 is "A10,B05,C03,D04", indicating the sequence
of the customer type coefficients is A>B>D>C. Therefore,
the customer type for this user is determined as type A, that is,
the type of "need for person dependency" (step 109).
After the customer type for this user has been determined as the
type of "need for person dependency", the link in the dynamic link
area 49 is set to the target corresponding to the type of "need for
person dependency" (step 113). As for the example in FIG. 7, the
link to the target corresponding to the type of "need for person
dependency" is assumed to be "content O". So, the link to the
target of the dynamic link area 49 is set to "content O". Then, the
Web server 13 transmits the content I 39 as well as the link to the
content O to the PC 11 (step 115), so that the content I 39 and the
link to the content O are displayed on the browser screen 53 of the
PC 11.
For every content request by the user, the Web server 13 retrieves
the customer type identification data 45 associated with the
requested content and updates the customer type identification
portion of the user ID based on the retrieved customer type
identification data 45. The customer type for the user is
determined based on the updated customer type identification
portion. Once the customer type for the user has been determined, a
link to the content corresponding to that customer type is
obtained. The Web server 13 transmits the requested content
together with the link to the content corresponding to the customer
type, to the PC 11 so as to present them to the user.
Such process for determining the user's customer type does not need
to store access logs for individual users in the Web server.
Rather, it is sufficient to store only the user ID which contains
the person identification portion and the customer type
identification portion. Because the data amount of the user ID is
less than the access log and only the user ID needs to be updated
for every content request, the storage area requirement for the
system can be decreased.
Besides, the determination process for the customer type according
to the present invention is based on the update of the customer
type identification portion for every content request and the
determination of the customer type identification portion after the
update. Because the processing cost for these processes for every
content request is relatively small, the determination of the
customer type can be processed in real time without decreasing the
overall throughput of the Web site.
In the above-described embodiment, the customer type identification
portion of the user ID is updated by means of adding the retrieved
customer type identification data 45. However, in an alternative
embodiment, the customer type identification portion is updated in
accordance with a stochastic matrix.
In case of using the stochastic matrix to update the customer type
identification portion, a default matrix is first given as an
initial value. When a user accesses a content, the customer type
identification data 45 associated with the content is retrieved.
The stochastic matrix of the content is created from the retrieved
customer type identification data 45. Then, the default matrix is
multiplied by the stochastic matrix created from the content. The
multiplication result is substituted for the customer type
identification portion. Every time the user accesses a new content,
a stochastic matrix is created from the customer type
identification portion, and the created stochastic matrix is
multiplied by the stochastic matrix created from the content. The
customer type identification portion is updated through repeating
these matrix operations. Such updated customer type identification
portion is compared with a reference value so as to determine the
customer type in the same manner as for the aforementioned addition
method.
In the above-described embodiment, the dynamic link area is
provided in the Web page that is frame-divided. In another
embodiment, however, a link in the Web page which is being accessed
can dynamically select a content for presenting an appropriate Web
page. In such embodiment, a content corresponding to the customer
type, not a link appropriate to the user according to the customer
type, is presented. Following will describe another embodiment with
reference to FIG. 8.
In another embodiment, multiple versions are prepared for one
content. Each of the multiple versions contains respective
information which is slightly different for each customer type. A
version of the content corresponding to the customer type is
presented as a Web page when the customer type of the user has been
determined.
For example, the content D 61 shown in FIG. 8 contains a dynamic
link 63 to the content E. Although this dynamic link 63 displayed
on the browser screen appears as if the URL of the content E were
its target to be linked, it is actually linked to the URL of the
CGI program.
When this dynamic link 63 is clicked by the user, a parameter
representing the content E is transmitted by the PC 11 to the CGI
program. The parameter representing the content E is used as an
argument for selecting the content to be transmitted to the PC
11.
The Web server 13 prepares beforehand multiple versions of the
content E (65 to 71) corresponding to the customer types. These
multiple versions essentially have the same information as the
content E but have some differences in accordance with the customer
types. Just as content E, these content versions are provided with
customer type identification data.
The CGI program selects, from these versions, a version of the
content E which is most appropriate to the user. In order to make
this selection, the CGI program retrieves the customer type
identification data associated with the content E so as to
determine the customer type based on the retrieved customer type
identification data.
When it is determined that the type of the user is the customer
type A, the CGI program selects the content E 65 for the customer
type A to transmit it to the PC 11. When the customer type B is
determined, the CGI program selects the content E 67 for the
customer type B to transmit it to the PC 11. When the customer type
is not determined, the CGI program selects the content E 71 for the
default type to transmit it to the PC 11. Thus, the CGI program
selects a version of the content E corresponding to the customer
type and transmits it to the PC 11.
Such provision of the contents corresponding to the customer types
is not limited to the above-described embodiments. In the
above-described embodiment, multiple versions of the content,
according to the customer types, are beforehand prepared in the Web
page. Alternatively, for example, one content version may be
generated based on the customer type every time the customer type
is determined.
Although the invention has been above described with reference to
the specific embodiments, the invention is not limited to such
embodiments and various modifications that may be easily
implemented by skilled persons in the art are within the scope of
the present invention.
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